Blended Whisky
By the 1800s, brandy was the high-class drink – delicate Cognac was the choice of the aristocracy and weighty Scotch whisky was considered much more uncouth. In 1830, an Irishman named Aeneas Coffey patented a still that could produce a lighter and more delicate style of spirit – grain whisky. The grocers discovered that if they combined this with their heavier single malts, they could produce a more elegant whisky that appealed to the Cognac drinkers. And with that, our modern idea of blended whisky was born.